Catalyst Road Show 6 - Jumping off the Jetty

The tenth anniversary tour of Catalyst continues with our sixth gig, this time in lovely Governors Bay, Banks Peninsula.

Featuring an impressive line up with Andy Coyle, Doc Drumheller, Fiona Farrell, Rosa Hughes-Currie, Lizzie Tollemache, Phoebe Wright.

Not only does this performance include both the current, two-time Christchurch Poetry Slam champion Pheobe Wright and 2012 Survivor Poetry winner Lizzie Tollemache it also features NZ literary luminary and Banks Peninsula resident Fiona Farrell.

Add to this the hypnotic style of Lyttelton poet and author Andy Coyle, the strident energy of Rosa Hughes-Currie and the music and words of Catalyst founder, wandering poet and teacher Doc Drumheller and it's one hell of a night at the historic Governors Bay Hotel.  If there's one night of poetry you want to get to this month, this year - this is it.

Gig starts at 8pm and is a tiny $10 on the door which also gets you a free, limited edition zine featuring the work of the poets.

Catalyst Road Show 6
Saturday 16th November, 8pm
Governors Bay Hotel, 52 Main Road, Governors Bay, Lyttelton Harbour
$10 entry includes free chapbook
 

Christchurch Poetry Slam - the results!

Well, we did it!  Pulled off a very fun night at very short notice and congratulations to all the poets who joined in the fun and the fun audience who joined in all the poetry.  The biggest thank you to Andy Coyle (previous ChCh Slam Team member) for getting us all together and making it happen

Eight courageous poets took to the microphone at Tommy Chang's bar in Lyttelton, attempting to impress the (rather hard to please) audience judges.  In the end it was a close affair between the final three (special mention to Stephen Estall who excluded himself in the final round in an amazing blaze of glory!)

The top three were:

Slam Champ: Phoebe Wright
Runner up: Kimberley Holmes
2nd Runner up: Andrew Clarke

So Phoebe Wright successfully defended her crown as Christchurch Slam Champion, the first time anyone has done this in our history of both Poetry Idol and NZ Poetry Slam.

Congratulations again to our top three.  The NZ Poetry Slam Final is tonight in Wellington, we wish Phoebe and Kimberley good words and good luck as they take on NZ's best.

NZ Poetry Slam - Christchurch Heat

Calling all poets, calling all Slam Poets, emergency Chch slam heats in one week, for national final in 10 days!!!!

This year’s regional heat will be held at Tommy Chang’s Lyttelton 7pm Wednesday 6th November, competing for a spot in the national final to be held at Meow in Wellington on  Sat the 9th Nov!!

NZ Poetry Slam Christchurch Heat
Wednesday 6th November
Tommy Chang's  48 London Street, Lyttelton
Koha $5 or more towards poets' travel
Poets must register by 7pm. Slam starts at 7.15 sharp.
 
This slam is for competitors R18+
No props, time limit of 3 minutes or penalties will apply. 
Check NZ Slam website for exact rules, and details of the final.
A maximum of 20 competitors on a first-in first-served basis.
Audience judges.
After a difficult and uncertain year the NZ Poetry Slam could not predict the ability to fully subsidize costs for competitors from Christchurch in the 2013 National Slam final, however, a last minute agreement has been reached by organisers to fully subsidize flights for 1st place, while holding a spot open for the 2nd place getter to be subsidized by proceeds from a $5 or more koha cover charge on the night.

NZ Poetry Slam regrets the inconvenience late programming will cause for some competitors, and asks for the understanding and support of those unable to compete. NZ Poetry Slam is committed to resuming subsidy for the top three Chch slam poets in 2014.

But the good news for those poets who can clear their schedule is … you have one week to prepare yourself for this last minute opportunity, the slam stakes have just been super-charged, you cannot afford to settle for third, only 1st  and 2nd place travel to the NZ Slam Final.  And hey, even if you can’t compete, come and enjoy, judge and help to get the winners up to Wellington so Christchurch has a voice in the national slam.

We tried to secure a venue in town but all of our venues are in use so Tommy Chang’s (home of the Lyttelton Poets) has kindly opened their doors to this event. It will start early and we will endeavour to finish in time for the last bus at 11pm.


Rules for NZ National Poetry Slam

• 3 minutes or less with no minimum time (10 second grace period before point’s deduction)
• Time starts when poet speaks, however while poets can have time to settle and adjust microphone etc, this time is not limitless; ideally a poet should start after 10 seconds.

• Original poems only

• No props no music no costumes (i.e. clothing related to the content of your poem)

• In the case of a tie a slam off will be required

• Random draw, for performance order.

Judging and scoring:

• 5 Audience Judges (chosen by MC and/or organiser) display score cards 0-10 (Decimal points allowed)

• Top and bottom scores drop off and total of remaining 3 scores is the total

• If Poet goes over grace period MC or Timekeeper to ask scorer to mark down points after the judges score… (Half a point penalty for every 10 seconds over time)

• After 4 minutes the MC can shut down the poet

• 'Sacrificial Poet' (non-competing) to start the night, to help calibrate scores.

• Slams are equally about writing, performance and audience response.

• Slammers should have at least 3 poems, as for the Regionals and NZ Slam
  there will be three rounds…

Catalyst Road Show 5: Working Bees!

The world's slowest poetry tour trundles on!  This time we're taking a fine selection of poets out into the daylight to imbibe a little bit of community spirit.

Renew Brighton has instigated a working bee to build a community space with a pizza oven and some picnic tables at the site of the sadly missed Bridge St Bakehouse.  We thought, what about combining a community effort with some performance poetry and music?  Is this a new genre?  Who cares? 

Everyone's welcome! Feel free to come along and muck in or bring some deck chairs and refreshments to enjoy the words and music.

The working bee is kicking off at 10am and the poetry/music at 2pm.

Here's the deets:

Catalyst Road Show 5
Saturday 2nd November 2pm
91 Estuary Rd (cnr Bridge St, Estuary Rd)
working bee start at 10am.

Remember this is a empty site - bring your own chairs etc. wear sturdy footwear/weather-appropriate clothes and BYO refreshments.  The gig is free - especially for those building and making stuff - everyone else we'll ask for koha.

Poems in the Waiting Room 2014

Poems in the Waiting Room is launching its 2014 Poetry Competition next week.

Poems in the Waiting Room (NZ) is a charitable arts in health trust which has been operating in New Zealand since 2008. Every season 6000 free poetry cards are distributed to medical waiting rooms, rest homes, hospices and prisons throughout the South Island and lower North Island. The cards may be read on site or taken home for further reading or sharing. Each seasons poems are also transcribed into Braille booklets which are distributed by the RNZFB.

The competition has three aims; to provide a new selection of poems to use in the cards, to advertise the project, and to assist with the printing of future PitWR seasonal cards.


Full competition details may be found at waitingroompoems.wordpress.com

Fourth Caselberg International Poetry Prize, 2014

The Caselberg Charitable Trust

Fourth Caselberg International Poetry Prize, 2014

Judge: Sue Wootton 

Sue Wootton’s publications include three collections of poetry (Hourglass, Magnetic South and By Birdlight), a children’s book Cloudcatcher, and,most recently, the short story collection The Happiest Music on Earth (Rosa Mira Books 2013).

Entries for the Caselberg Prize (First Prize $500) will be welcomed between 1^st October and 31^st December 2013. 

For more information,please go to www.caselbergtrust.org

Canterbury Poets Collective 2013 readings

Several pieces of news to hand - we've been a bit slack in promoting this one but there are plenty of cool readings left this year.  Get along and be part of the open mic and check out the featured poets.

Coming up today!

23 October:    Michele Amas, Ben Brown, Sarah Amazinnia

 CPSA building - 5 Madras St
$5 entry

 30 October:    Harry Ricketts, Helen Jacobs, James Norcliffe
  6  November: Riemke Ensing, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Rodney Foster
 13 November: Reihana Robinson, Poets from Hagley Writers Institute
 20 November: Best of the 2013 season's open mic readers.

Lyttelton Poets @ Tommy Changs

Those Lyttelton poets are at it again, Andy Coyle, Helen Back, Ciaran Fox, Rebecca Nash and Ben Brown combine with guitar soundscaper Paul Timings for a night of sound and imagery.

On a cold winters night at Tommy Chang's bar on London Street the Lyttelton Poets performed for the first time with Paul Timings, a singer guitarist with a wonderful sense of the atmospheric.
It was a perfect occasion for poetry, great lines flowed freely from spilled bottles, laughter fluttered towards the light and got stuck in crows feet cobwebs, new lovers locked eyes, old lovers dropped smiles, cat calls and heckles threatened to turn into rhyme and even an old sea dog was heard to mutter into a stormy tumbler of scotch, 'it's all bloody good, actually....'

join us again this Labour weekend, as we endeavour to entertain simply with words,
(and the amazing atmospheric guitar soundscapes of Paul Timings... )


Sunday 27th Oct, night before Labour Day,
show starts 8pm
only $5
 venue opens 4pm

Catalyst Road Show 4

Returning to our roots and throwing the search tower lights on for the Lyttelton Poets.  It's Road Show time again and it's rolling around to the Wunderbar to showcase the best of Lyttelton.  Featuring Sarah Amazinnia, Ben Brown, Andy Coyle, Ciaran Fox and Rebecca Nash along with the musical stylings of Carmel Courtney and Doc Drumheller.

Catalyst Road Show w/ Carmel Courtney
Thursday 26th September 8pm
Wunderbar, Lyttelton
$10 entry incl. free limited edition chapbook

The Return of the Open Mic

After a short hiatus, we're back and opening up the microphone for poets of every stripe to come, share and road test new material or regale us with their favourites.

NZ's longest running poetry night is in a new home at The Darkroom (336 St Asaph St, Christchurch)

Come along and celebrate like it's 2013 and we've been going for 10 years... oh wait a minute, it is 2013 and we have been going for 10 years.  What a co-incidence!  Sounds like we need WHISKY!  Or maybe champagne?  There's certainly excellent craft ale and food available...

Anyway - don't miss the triumphant return of Catalyst next week - we're expecting you...

Catalyst Open Mic
Wednesday 7th August, 8pm
The Darkroom 336 St Asaph St

RISING VOICES SLAM POETRY WORKSHOPS AND COMPETITION

A little notice from our friend Tusiata Avia.  This is an amazing opportunity for any young people (16-24 years) interested in performance poetry.  This Saturday!

RISING VOICES SLAM POETRY WORKSHOPS AND COMPETITION

Starts Saturday 3 August 10-12 pm

Aranui Library, 109 Aldershot St

Rising Voices is the only youth slam in NZ - for 16 to 24 year olds. Originated by Grace Taylor and Jai MacDonald - this is a slam with a difference. You will go through 6 weeks (6 Saturdays) of intensive writing and performance workshops to get you ready to compete.

If you have never done slam poetry before, but enjoy writing and performing, and would like to give it a try - we welcome you.

At the end of the workshops, we will have a local slam competition and the 2 winners will go to Auckland to compete in the Auckland Rising Voices Slam Competition at The Edge, Aotea Centre.

Mentors are: Daisy Lavea-Timo and Tusiata Avia

Presented by Niu Navigations and sponsored by CNZ and The Edge.

For more info contact: Tusiata:  dtavia@hotmail.com/ Tusiata Avia on Facebook

Catalyst Road Show 3 - poster

Catalyst Road Show 3 - US Slam Poets Tour NZ

Yep, we're back with another Road Show and the line up is looking sweet.

We're proud to present as our feature guests renowned slam poets from the USA Carrie Rudzinski and Ken Arkind currently touring NZ.  Ably supporting these wandering wordsmiths are Michelle Bolton, Doc Drumheller, Ciaran Fox, Kimberley Holmes and Phoebe Wright.

Catalyst Road Show 3
Thurs 13th June, 8pm
The Darkroom (336 St Asaph St)
Free + first 30 peeps get a free chapbook! 

We're at a brand new venue for the Road Show (3 gigs, 3 venues so far!) - The Darkroom on St Asaph St, and a lovely venue it is too.  We are fortunate to be hosting Ken and Carrie in Christchurch - they are incredible performers and this show is a must-see if you are at all interested in spoken word poetry.  And thanks to the Darkroom, it's FREE.  Plus the first 30 peeps through the door will get a free copy of the limited edition Catalyst Road Show 3 chapbook.  Nice!  Check out the back story for Carrie and Ken below...

Ken Arkind is a National Poetry Slam Champion, Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Champion, published author, and featured Tedx Speaer who has performed his work in 49 States, Australia, New Zealand Ireland, the UK, and at over 150 colleges and universities. He is the Executive Director and head Brave New Voices coach for The Denver Minor Disturbance Youth Poetry Project, an independent literary arts organization dedicated to helping Colorado youth find their voices through the mediums of poetry and performance, and current Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Champions.  For more about Ken see here.

Carrie Rudzinski, named “Best Female Poet” and “Best of The Rest” at her first national poetry competition in 2008, is a full time performance poet who has performed her work across the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and India. She represented the Boston Poetry Slam at the 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam, twice at the National Poetry Slam (2010/2011), and ranked 14th at the 2011 Women Of The World Poetry Slam. Most recently, she represented Denver’s Mercury Café at the 2013 Women Of The World Poetry Slam. Her newest collection of work, The Shotgun Speaks, will be published in May 2013.  For more about Carrie see here.

 

Story Festival: Tales at the Pallet Pavilion

Don't miss this fantastic collection of events, something of an orgy of story-telling, poetry and song over 3 days at the wonderful Gap Filler Pallet Pavilion.  Friday night (tomorrow 5th April!) sees our very own Doc Drumheller sharing songs and poetry.  Click here for the full programme of events - there's stuff for everyone from the littlies through to adults, from yoga and movement to improv and music, song-writing and stories both fiction and non-fiction.  There's lots of workshops as well as performances and even interactive, improvising sessions where the audience can become the performers.  Seriously, check out the programme via the link above and get out and support this.

News Flash! Catalyst Calls for Submissions - Vol. 10!

Yip, you read it right, after a lengthy cool down period from the beautiful volume 9, Catalyst is announcing a call for submissions for volume 10, with a very short submission window.  Details below...

To celebrate ten years of publishing, Catalyst literary arts journal is going to publish its tenth volume. We are inviting friends from around the world to submit work for this issue. We are interested in seeing various forms of poetry: experimental, performance, haiku, song lyrics and whatever your imagination can conjure. 

Submission Guidelines:

Please read carefully - submissions that do not follow the guidelines below will not be considered.  Email submissions only.

Please send no more than five poems and a short BIO to: catalyst_submissions@yahoo.com

Please also include in the subject line: Your Name and Submission e.g: Doc Drumheller, Catalyst Submission. Attachments that do not follow this guideline will not be opened. Please help us avoid spam! Send work as a word attachment, send all your poems and BIO in one attachment please and include your email and postal address. Use Times New Roman 12pt font, single spaced, with no header, footers or any other formatting.

We are also encouraging those who submit work to also subscribe: rates are $40 for two issues in New Zealand and $50 for international. 

Please send cheques to: PO Box 3083, Christchurch, New Zealand.

All successful applicants will receive a free copy of the journal.

The deadline is: 20^th April 2013.

Poetry at the Ashburton Art Gallery

Here's a notice from the Ashburton Art Gallery via the Canterbury Poets Collective (CPC)

An evening of poetic magic is being held as a fund-raising effort for The Ashburton Art Gallery. Revel in the captivating lyrical rhymes and admire the creative talent in the Ashburton area.

Friday 22nd March 7pm, 
tickets are $15 
and are available from 
The Ashburton Art Gallery

Baring Square East, Ashburton, 
Entry via the back of the building. Phone 03 308 1133
The program includes an Open Mic session plus invited readers -
Mark Raffills - Sean Joyce - Marisa Cappetta - Jeni Curtis 

Sip on a freshly brewed coffee or hot chocolate from The Coffee Guy, while surrounded by beautiful illustrations and artwork by renowned artist Graham Percy. Enjoy the readings from the invited poets and perhaps join in the open mic session. If you, or someone you know, are interested in reading then feel free to contact the Gallery for further information.

Microfilm Digital Print: Ten Years of Printing Literary Lava (and counting!)

2013 marks ten years since the first Catalyst was published and that very first volume was also the first book project of a ten year relationship with our printers - Microfilm Digital Print.

So now, one decade and 17 books later, we're pleased to say that we're both still here and still making cool stuff together.  We've both learnt a lot and Microfilm have supported every single project and often gone the extra mile for us to make deadlines or get the best quality printing and binding possible.  They are still the most experienced small print run book specialists in Christchurch and we wholeheartededly recommend them to anyone thinking of making a book - talk to them and see what's possible!

The latest collaboration is in the form of the latest Catalyst Road Show event: Woman Scream at the Summer Pallet Pavilion.  Microfilm are sponsoring us through printing the posters and the special limited edition chapbook that comes free with entry to the event on Thursday 14th March.  Thanks Microfilm!  

And now, a sneak preview of the cover of the chapbook - if you want a copy you better come along to the gig - all the poets and songwriters performing are featured in the chapbook - don't miss out!

Catalyst Road Show presents:

Woman Scream

8pm, Thurs 14th March

Gap Filler Summer Pallet Pavilion

cnr Kilmore and Durham Sts

$10 entry includes a free limited edition chapbook